When Art Meets Chickens: 5

This is the fifth compilation in a series featuring folks that are inspired to depict chickens in their art or craft. I’m always happy to promote the work of artisans and the love of chickens.

Hannah Bader (https://www.facebook.com/HanadisArt; Instagram @hanadis.art)

I am a 47-year-old artist and mother of five beautiful children. I studied art and became an art teacher before I decided to tend to my children and become a stay-at-home mom. Giving up my teaching career did not stop me from continuing my passion for art. I spent my free time creating art pieces at home. Even being diagnosed with Cushing’s Disease 13 years ago did not stop me from following my dreams. Prime symptoms are fatigue, feeling weak and having difficulties sleeping. During the days in which I felt extremely tired, weak and unable to get out of bed, I stayed in my room painting on mugs. In my sleepless nights I painted on canvas until sunrise. The times in which my body felt weak, I created art. It was therapeutic and allowed me to release negative emotions in a beautiful way.

When I was a child in Palestine, my younger brother was extremely passionate about taking care of animals, especially chickens. I enjoyed watching him interact with them, feeding them and tending to their needs. As this was a part of my childhood and something that made me very happy, I thought that painting a series of funny chickens will allow me to relive those happy moments and put a smile on other people’s faces as well.

Janet Barocco

I live in Santa Rosa in Northern California. My husband and I have a ¼ acre lot within the city limits with fruit and nut trees, herb, flower, vegetable and habitat gardens. My three hens, a 7 year old Wyandotte, 5 year old Orpington and a Belgian Maline, have a 30’ x 60’ chicken run around the perimeter of the yard. I let them out to forage in the backyard landscape, supervised in the afternoons.

Here are several pieces of my birds: an oil painting “Coop Family Portrait”, a graphite of Mimi our 5 year old Belgian Maline and a color pencil portrait of Buffy, my favorite and one of my original hens; she died at nearly 10 years old in 2020. Only one of the girls in the painting is still alive.

Huyềny Nguyễn (www.etsy.com/shop/MiniClaySucculent)

I’m a 27-year-old woman living in Vietnam and work full-time making different miniature plant and animal figures out of polymer clay. I’m self-employed and create, photograph and market my sculptures on my own. Two years ago I opened an Etsy shop and sell them around the world. I enjoy making chickens and do custom orders replicating customer’s birds in clay.